Retirement Wealth Decisions in Australia’s Superannuation System: Part 3, Decumulation

Abstract

This is the final study in a series of three papers examining retirement wealth decisions in Australia's superannuation system. The work seeks to introduce a holistic approach to examining decision making across the key stages of retirement wealth provision, namely: accumulation; conversion; and, decumulation. The central idea considered in this study relates to the decumulation of superannuation savings. Using a sample of 365 Australians over the age of 45, we consider three areas: financial market factors (the integration of the public pension with superannuation), attitudes to superannuation and annuity market features (the lack of financial advice/knowledge, and the skewing of savings towards housing), and the influence of demographic characteristics (gender and income) in light of decumulation outcomes.